Supporting Teachers and Counselors During Spring Application Season

Preparing seniors for college and careers takes on extra urgency during spring semester. Teachers, counselors, and administrators receive an influx of inquiries about everything from letters of recommendation to status updates on courses students must pass to graduate.

Spring can be stressful for families and students, too, as they try to stay on top of all the details without becoming overwhelmed and losing their sense of enjoyment during what should be a time to celebrate.

School districts that use Otus give everyone an advantage. Having a single platform to track students’ progress and highlight their strengths and achievements means comprehensive information is readily available whenever it is needed.

The functionality to zoom out and see the high school graduation proficiencies of an entire class or to focus tightly on an individual student’s needs in the final weeks of their K-12 experience set Otus apart. And by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence through AI Insights, educators can analyze data quickly and communicate efficiently and accurately, with one student or an entire class.

Here are four examples of how Otus supports educators as graduation approaches.

College and career readiness tracking

While some students have already decided on their post-graduation plans, many are still exploring their options and seeking guidance from trusted educators.

Within Otus, teachers and counselors can easily view a longitudinal analysis of individual student performance data paired with non-academic factors such as attendance, behavior, and social-emotional learning. If needed, they can generate actionable insights based on the analysis and provide targeted support such as personalized learning pathways aligned to students’ goals.

At the district level, administrators can use the plans module to set up templates for action steps toward specific academic goals such as credit recovery as well as broader plans for college readiness, career tracking, or graduation pathways. Based on these templates, teachers can create plans for individual students, ensuring all the necessary steps are laid out clearly.

And AI Insights can simplify tracking the indicators of college and career readiness over time so no one is blindsided by unexpected roadblocks just before graduation.

Letters of recommendation

As students near the end of their K-12 education journey, they have generated an abundance of data about who they are as learners. This is a treasure trove for teachers who are asked to recommend students for awards and scholarships—but too often it is scattered across dozens of apps and programs.

Otus offers a single tool for gathering and interpreting information about students’ progress and strengths, helping teachers recall specifics about their own classes while making it easy for them to see grades and portfolios from other courses, special recognitions, and third-party assessments. These resources enhance teachers’ ability to paint a comprehensive picture of the soon-to-be graduate.

In districts that use standards-based grading, progress reports are especially detailed, informing educators about how well a student has done in each specific area. These nuances of achievement can help students stand out even more to college, scholarship, and awards committees.

For time-crunched teachers, tapping into AI Insights for a first draft can be a valuable tool to maximize efficiency and ensure all of the most relevant data is included.

Student autonomy within the platform

Throughout high school, students are encouraged to develop traits like responsibility and self-efficacy. Within Otus, this includes:

• Completing assigned lessons directly within the platform.
• Accessing shared resources through the Bookshelf feature.
• Looking up their own progress.
• Reviewing action steps and plans toward individual goals.
• Uploading assessments, blog posts, recordings, or other materials to portfolios.

The lead-up to graduation puts seniors’ autonomy to the test—especially for those who still need to complete specific actions to earn their diploma. But they don’t have to go it alone. Teachers can partner with students to track progress and offer feedback to improve their performance. Families can also stay informed about what is happening at school and what they can do to support their student at home.

Looping families into the process

With information coming in from every direction during senior year, families appreciate having a single resource like Otus where they can stay up to date on their child’s preparation for graduation. By logging into Otus, parents can view many types of updates, from student summary reports to classroom blogs.

Because families see the same information on the same platform as teachers and administrators, everyone is on the same page and communication gaps are less likely to happen.

If a worst-case scenario happens and families learn of a potential challenge to their child’s graduation readiness, they do not need to search around multiple sites and platforms to get in touch with the school. And when teachers need to get in touch with families, they can send messages directly through the Otus platform and log their communications for future reference.

But such a scenario is unlikely to happen with Otus because administrators, teachers, and counselors would have been generating reports about students’ progress toward college and career readiness indicators throughout their high school journey. Students likewise would have been tracking their own skills-based goals for future success, with visibility for their families along the way.

Having the reassurance that everyone is prepared for graduation lets educators, families, and students focus on what truly matters: celebrating growth and achievement.